Hurricane Preparedness Week: Day 6 - Help Your Neighbors

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Today we hit the penultimate topic in National Hurricane Preparedness Week - which asks people to help their neighbors both before and after a storm.  Given some of the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, doing so may take some additional planning, but it is more important than ever.

Many Americans rely on their neighbors after a disaster, but there are also many ways you can help your neighbors before a hurricane approaches. Learn about all the different actions you and your neighbors can take to prepare and recover from the hazards associated with hurricanes.

Start the conversation now with these Neighbor Helping Neighbor strategies but remember you may need to adjust your preparedness plans based on the latest health and safety guidelines from the CDC and your local officials.

NHC PrepareNWS Hurricane Safety

Nearly 1 person in 10 in the United States lives alone. That’s roughly 27 million people who are particularly vulnerable during a crisis. Add in the elderly or disabled, and single households with small children, and the number of `at risk' households goes up considerably.

More than a dozen years ago, when H5N1 loomed as a pandemic threat, I began to promote the idea of each of us having, and being a, `Flu Buddy’. Particularly for those who lack an in-house support system.

I fleshed out the idea in a 2008 blog called Lifelines In A Pandemic.

A `Flu Buddy’ is simply someone you can call if you get sick, who will then check on you every day (by phone, social media, or in person), make sure you have the food and medicines you need (including fetching prescriptions if appropriate), help care for you if needed, and who can call for medical help if your condition deteriorates.

Those people who care for others, like single parents, also need to consider who will take care of their dependents if they are sick.

After the 2009 pandemic ended, I reworked the `flu buddy' idea into a more generic `Disaster Buddy’ concept in a 2010 blog called In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?. While we tend to think of disasters as large scale events, it doesn’t require a pandemic, earthquake, or hurricane to put you in perilous straits.

A house fire, car accident, sudden illness, or some other more limited emergency can overwhelm as well, and having a preexisting support system is an important prep.

It makes sense to look both to relatives, friends, and close neighbors when selecting `disaster buddies'. In September of 2017, when I had to evacuate due to Hurricane Irma I found myself very glad to have a small network of disaster buddies of my own to rely on (see #NatlPrep: Disaster Buddies - The Most Important Prep Of All).

Two days before the storm arrived, all of my neighbors were out helping each other batten down the hatches, tie down trailers, cutting back tree limbs, etc. I handed out some of my stash of flashlights and LED lanterns, and after the storm, in A Post Irma Update, I wrote about the aftermath.

I had enough `surplus' preps, that I was able to loan a camp stove to one of my neighbors, several bags of heat-and-eat foods (spam, tuna, Ramen noodles, canned ravioli, etc.) to some in the neighborhood whose food supplies were running low, and a gratefully received 10-lb block of ice and some still frozen food to a friend down the block.

The MH park manager is trying to get a gas generator to let them run the well pump for 2 hours a day, and with this heat and humidity, they need it badly. Hopefully they can score enough fuel to keep it running for a week or longer.

I've managed to reach all but one of my close friends and relatives who were impacted. All are safe, but many are without electricity. There is going to be a long, hot, and tedious few weeks ahead, but Floridians have been through this many times before.

By the luck of the draw I haven't needed many of the preps I had on hand, but having them has allowed me to share with a half dozen neighbors who weren't nearly as fortunate.

This summer, there is a real possibility that some communities will have to deal with both a pandemic, and a natural disaster like a major hurricane. Store shelves are already depleted, and the ability for many people to prepare is more limited than in past years.

All of which means that now is the time to talk to your friends, neighbors, and relatives to figure out how you will cope - and help one another - if the need arises in the months to come.